


tell me why

by allp_wips



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-06-24 23:31:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19733890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allp_wips/pseuds/allp_wips
Summary: For thirty years, Alex had never heard music in her head.(soulmate au where you hear the music that your soulmate is listening to)





	tell me why

For thirty years, Alex had never heard music in her head.

Nothing. Zip. Nada.

She knew the whole soulmate thing wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Imagine if your soulmate had absolutely horrible taste in music and now you were stuck listening in on it, too, day and night. That sounded like a nightmare.

But, somehow, it was still worse to hear nothing at all.

It wasn't simply that her soulmate seem to have no interest in music. It was that Alex heard nothing at all. Not even fucking Santa Claus mall music during Christmas time. Which, come on. Even if Alex factored that her soulmate lived in some other country or a totally different part of the world, it still made no sense that they would hear no music at all.

After scouring the databases of the HoH community, and still coming up with nothing, Alex could have been forgiven for thinking she never had a soulmate. That there was no one in the world who was meant for her, no one who would love her for who she was.

\---

  
  


It was harder when Kara came to live with her. Because, almost as soon as she landed, Kara started complaining about how she would often hear classical music in her ears. Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven ... apparently Kara's soulmate preferred the classics, and Kara couldn't stand it most of the time.

It was bittersweet, to hear her complaints. Alex knew, even when she despised Kara for taking up so much of her parents' attention, that her new sister deserved whatever solace she got from a soulmate, after losing so much else.

And yet, the petty, human part of Alex couldn't help but think that it was ironic that even an alien would be able to find a soulmate on Earth, when Alex herself couldn't.

\---

Alex's view on the existence of her soulmate changed rather dramatically a year after Kara came out as Supergirl.

Suddenly, there was a cacaphony of music ringing in Alex's ears all the time. It was music of every genre, and in so many different languages, including ones Alex couldn't even name. It was endless, like a robot looping one song after another. Alex got only a few hours of reprieve a day if she was lucky.

It was impossible. How could any one human being listen to so much everyday, with such little repetition in the songs? Alex's discovery that she had a soulmate after all, and her inescapable joy at finding that out, was rather tempered by the fact that she had to sit through the agony of listening to music practically nonstop every day of every week. She couldn't even escape it when she went to bed, because her soulmate seemed to sleep very few hours, if at all.

"That's weird," Kara said, wrinkling her nose, when Alex confided her ordeal over coffee one evening. "How can you have heard nothing at all for years, and now you're suddenly hearing everything, all the time?"

"Maybe my soulmate is just a really bad Spotify playlist," Alex said, frowning as she tried to make sense of what was playing in her head just then. It was Arabic, she was pretty sure, though she could only understand a few words here and there.

Kara snorted.

"I'd love to help you work out the logistics of that," she said, "But, I have to take Astra to the museum tonight, right after she comes back from her visit to the conservatory. She's really getting into this 'learn every aspect of human culture' thing."

She flew off, as Alex settled back in her seat with a frown.

Kara's newly reformed aunt was a thorn in her her side, no doubt about it. Alex didn't actually doubt the woman's loyalties; Astra had almost died getting the Omegahedron out of Fort Rozz, while fighting almost all her former lieutenants at once. She had only survived because Kara and Alex had found her dying body in time, and brought her to the DEO to recuperate. And there was no denying that Astra was putting her heart and soul into acquainting herself with Earth. When she wasn't helping out at the DEO, she was busy visiting every part of the world, trying everything, and helping out wherever she could. When she wasn't doing that, she was with Kara, trying to make up for their lost years spent apart.

The problem was that when Astra wasn't visiting places or with Kara, she was hovering around Alex's periphery, poking her nose into whatever Alex was up to. It was like she couldn't help but follow Alex around like a lost puppy, which was bad. And annoying; Alex was used to being a loner.

What was even worse was when she wasn't following Alex around. Because then, for some reason, Alex's brain got obsessed with where she was, and whether she was okay, and why hadn't she just asked Alex to go with her, so that Alex didn't have to worry like this.

All in all, Astra was the worst.

Alex frowned as the mellow notes in her head turned into a ear-bleeding nu metal number.

No scratch that, her soulmate was the worst. But, Astra was a close second.

\---

Her soulmate was going to drive her mad. Or get her killed. Or both at once.

Alex was stuck at a stakeout in front of Lord Technologies, with Astra as her backup. She knew the stakeout was useless because Max was out of town in Metropolis, but J'onn still insisted on keeping an eye on the building, and she and Astra had happened to draw the short straw this time.

As a rule, Alex didn't usually mind stakeouts. They gave her a chance to clear her mind, and catch some downtime on a usually intense job.

Not so since the music thing that started.

This time, what was stuck in her head on loop was one of those 90s boy band songs that Kara had loved, and it was driving Alex crazy. She couldn't get herself to focus, not with that catchy rhythm assaulting her ears. It was probably a good thing she had been assigned to stakeout; going into a mission with that in her head would have been catastrophic.

The song looped to play for the tenth time, and Alex was about to snap, when it abruptly cut off in her head. She breathed a sigh of relief, and reclined back against the car seat.

Right then, Astra sighed. Her hands went up to scratch at something in her ears.

"It seems I forgot to charge these," she said, bringing something out, that looked like a miniature pair of wireless earbuds.

Alex stared at the pair of buds in her hand, and then back up at Astra. Suddenly, her world seemed to slow down, so that she could only see her.

"What, are those?" she asked, her voice choked.

Astra stared bemusedly at her.

"You look pale, Alex. Are you alright?"

"What are those?" Alex asked again, more urgently.

"Kryptonian technology," Astra said staring at her. "They're like your Earth earbuds, I suppose, but much more advanced."

"They play music don't they?" Alex asked. She swallowed. "You were playing music."

"Not only music," Astra said slowly, as if she didn't understand quite what Alex was driving at yet. "I have been listening to those... audiobooks, I believe you call them, as well, in addition to songs from many different cultures and genres. It helps me to learn more about this planet, and has the added benefit of focusing my superhearing on one thing at a time."

"What were you just listening to?" Alex asked, her voice barely a whisper. "Before they died out, I mean."

Suddenly, a light seemed to go on in Astra's head, and her stare was as intense now as Alex felt that her own must be. "Why do you ask that?"

"It was a Backstreet boys song," Alex said, her mouth tilting up. "Kara loved that one. That was them, wasn't it?"

Astra nodded slowly. She seemed overwhelmed.

"You couldn't have known that, unless you are- unless we are-"

She fell silent, and they stared at each other for a good few minutes, before Alex exploded.

"Do you ever sleep?" she hissed. "Do you know how many fucking hours I've had to stay up listening to your fucking songs?"

Astra blinked.

"That... had never occurred to me," she admitted.

Alex huffed, crossed her arms, and looked straight ahead, steaming.

"You know," Astra said, into the silence. "Your choice in music isn't particularly appealing, either. You listen excessively to those loud songs which sound like someone is being flayed alive while screeching them out."

"Hey! Don't you ever talk about rock music like that!"

"Rock." Astra sniffed. "To think my soulmate would have such barbaric taste in music."

"Well, I just found out my soulmate is a snobby ex-intergalactic terrorist," Alex said. "So no one's winning here."

A few more minutes of huffy silence. Then, Alex glanced to her side. Snobby or not, Astra really was beautiful. And brave. And cared about Alex to a level that was annoying at times. And she was staring at Alex right now with a strangely vulnerable look on her face, which was why Alex felt brave enough to move a little closer to her.

"You're still annoying."

"So I understand," Astra said, but she was leaning in. "And you are still barbaric."

"Wanna make out?"

Astra already had Alex's jaw cupped between gentle hands. "Gladly."

\---


End file.
